Text+Suggestions+for+Year+9+and+10+Novels

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 * ~ Text Title ||~ Text Author ||~ Comment ||
 * Across the Barricades || Joan Lingard || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * Alex || Tessa Duder ||  ||
 * A Handful of Blue || Vince Ford ||  ||
 * A Gathering Light || Jennifer Donnelly ||  ||
 * Shadow of the Minotaur || Alan Gibbons || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * Shearwater Bell || Margaret Beames ||  ||
 * The White Darkness || Geraldine McCaughrean ||  ||
 * Noughts and Crosses || Malorie Blackman || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * Abomination || Robert Swindells || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * The Sea Wreck Stranger || Anna MacKenzie || A delicately entwined story fulled with mystery and enchantment. The perfect mix of imagination and nostalgia. ||
 * The Ring || Tania Roxburgh ||  ||
 * Chinese Cinderella || Adeline Yen Mah ||  ||
 * Mao's Last Dancer || Li Cunxin ||  ||
 * Slide the Corner || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * Abomination || Robert Swindells ||  ||
 * Violence 101 || Denis Wright || A great novel. Personally, it didn't really jump out at me though. ||
 * Owl || Joanna Orwin ||  ||
 * The Guardian of the Land || Joanna Orwin ||  ||
 * Hatchet || Gary Paulsen ||  ||
 * Lethal Deliveries || Ken Benn ||  ||
 * The Bone Tiki || David Hair || Fantastic story. Brilliantly written. An amazing combination of (and I quote from the last part of the book) ‘Myth and reality. Maori and Pakeha. Mother and father. New Zealand and Aotearoa. Each part of the other.’ ||
 * Kura Toa || Tim Tipene || I taught Kura Toa last year to low ability (Level 2 on e-asTTle) Year 9. It’s a great novel. ||
 * Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time || Mark Haddon ||  ||
 * The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas || John Boyne || Read it to my Year 8 class a year or two back. Students obviously need the social science background. Until then, they didn't get the subtle theme. Most ESOL students need the explanation afterwards. I wouldn't bother although it is a good book and not too big. ||
 * Exodus || Jukia Bertegna ||  ||
 * Milkweed || Jerry Spinelli ||  ||
 * Stargirl || Jerry Spinelli ||  ||
 * Noughts and Crosses || Malorie Blackman ||  ||
 * Boyznbikes || Vince Ford ||  ||
 * Gangsta Rap || Benjamin Zephania || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * Letters from the Coffin Trenches || Ken Catran ||  ||
 * Mortal Engines || Philip Reeve ||  ||
 * Losing it || Sandy McKay ||  ||
 * Touching the Void || Joe Simpson || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * The Giver || Lois Lowry ||  ||
 * The Lightning Thief || Rick Riordan ||  ||
 * Holes || Louis Sachar || [|Teach It UK] ||
 * Among the Hidden || Margaret Peterson Haddix ||  ||
 * Salt || Maurice Gee ||  ||
 * Zillah Series || Penelope Todd ||  ||
 * Talking to Blue || Ken Catran ||  ||
 * Guitar Highway Rose || Bridgid Lowry ||  ||
 * Lotsa Love Georgia || Bridgid Lowry ||  ||
 * Thunder Road || Ted Dawe ||  ||
 * Slide the Corner || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * Respectable Girl || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * The Transformation of Minna Hargraves || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * Shooting The Moon || V.M. Jones ||  ||
 * Juggling with Mandarins || V.M. Jones || Great book. Realistic storyline and characters. My year 10's loved it :) ||
 * Dream Quake || Elizabeth Knox ||  ||
 * Box || Penelope Todd ||  ||
 * The Whole of the Moon || Richard Lymposs ||  ||
 * Dream Hunter || Elizabeth Knox ||  ||
 * Playing For Keeps || Denis Martin ||  ||
 * Hideout || Lorraine Orman ||  ||
 * Sea Dreamer || Elizabeth Pulford ||  ||
 * Sitting On The Fence || Bill Nagelkerke ||  ||
 * Duet || David Hill ||  ||
 * The Declaration || Gemma Malley ||  ||
 * The Secret Countess || Eva Ibbotson ||  ||
 * What I Was || Meg Rosoff ||  ||
 * Before I Die || Jenny Downham ||  ||
 * If I Could Tell You || Tania Roxborogh ||  ||
 * Third Degree || Tania Roxborogh ||  ||
 * Limelight || Tania Roxborogh ||  ||
 * The Ring || Tania Roxborogh ||  ||
 * High Tide || Anna MacKenzie ||  ||
 * Seeker || William Nicholson ||  ||
 * The Wind Singer || William Nicholson ||  ||
 * Boy Overboard || Morris Gleitzman ||  ||
 * Frog Whistle Mine || Des Hunt ||  ||
 * The Hunger Games ||  || The best series of books I have read for young adults in a very, very long time - we are going to be using the first book in the series with a strong year nine group in 2011. Have a look on youtube at the fan-made trailers for the books - incredible how much creativity it has unleashed in young people. ||
 * The Project || Brian Falkner || Was a laugh out loud, come here, let me read you this, omg page turning, seat of the pants kind of novel. Falkner gets story. He gets kids (and those who are kids at heart). He is the modern day, upgraded version of Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew. Cough. Right. So, these boys discover a document hidden in a nondescript very old tome which turns out to be very, very important – the document – not the tome. I loved it. Your pre and young teen and yourself will too. ||
 * Five Parts Dead ||  || Fantastic short punchy story. The writing is tight. The story compelling. The narrator, Dan, has just survived a fatal car accident. He and his twin sister and parents are on holiday on a rugged island on South Australia’s coast. There are secrets to be uncovered or exposed (both within Dan’s experience and those of the people from the island over 150 years ago.) Ghosts, dreams, memories, connections, the reality of the place – all these are vividly recounted in this un-put-down-able novel. From the author who brought //Game as Ned//, this fresh and exciting voice for YA fiction is not to be ignored. Boys and girls will love this. ||
 * This Way Up || Lindsay Wood || A great ‘fat boy triumphs’ story without being clichéd. Corey is forced to join something extra curricular at school and chooses Orienteering. He thinks it will be ‘like a stroll in the park’. Of course, it wouldn’t be an interesting read if it were. Wood takes us convincingly in the shoes of Corey as he learns (as we do) what Orienteering is really like. Made me want to go join a club. So much fun. Tightly written with convincing characters. I hope Lindsay has more stories up his sleeve. Recommended as class set for upper primary/intermediate, the library or as a gift for the tween in your family. ||
 * Into the Wilderness || Mandy Hager || A young girl, our hero, faced with impossible circumstances now must deal with multiple problems. Hagar takes us from one lost hope to another. ||
 * Fierce September || Fleur Beale || Picks up immediately from //Juno of Tarris//and sends us, along with Juno and her stratum and family, into a whole other adventure which sees them arrive at New Zealand in the not too unimaginable future and coping with the intense prejudice experienced by many immigrants to our land. A terrible pandemic, not seen in the country for years, is now sweeping the land and the people of Tarris are being blamed. ||
 * Ebony Hill || Anna Mackenzie || Satisfies us with what happens next. In //The Sea Wreck Stranger//, we were impressed with Ness’s attitude and skill. This novel puts her in an even more difficult position. Reminiscent of some echoes of our earlier history, we, like Ness, are caught up in the injustice of what is happening to the people who are affected by war and the greed of others. ||
 * Timeriders ||  || The plot is clever: In the future, someone created a time travel machine but realised that doing so was a huge mistake and ‘purportedly’ destroys it. Further on in the future, the world is in a state of collapse. Not a happy place to be – even America. A clever scientist goes in search of the machine, finds it, gathers elite troops and ends back to Germany 1944 and convinces Hitler to trust him (//don’t invade Russia//) and the world as we know it is changed forever. ||
 * Juno of Tarris || Fleur Beale || Was loved by my top set Y10 girls. ||
 * Timeriders ||  || The plot is clever: In the future, someone created a time travel machine but realised that doing so was a huge mistake and ‘purportedly’ destroys it. Further on in the future, the world is in a state of collapse. Not a happy place to be – even America. A clever scientist goes in search of the machine, finds it, gathers elite troops and ends back to Germany 1944 and convinces Hitler to trust him (//don’t invade Russia//) and the world as we know it is changed forever. ||
 * Juno of Tarris || Fleur Beale || Was loved by my top set Y10 girls. ||

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